Sunday, April 10, 2016

Foot Prisons on Wheels

Talking about roller skating yesterday, the 1980 Montgomery Wards xmas catalog has a few examples to really help paint the picture of the kind of wheeled foot prisons I donned on my Rock Roll-O-Rena rink evenings back in the day in Arnold, MO. That's right, 1980 may have been considered more the disco era, but I guarantee I shot the duck and speed skated my pre-teen (and soon to be punk rock metal head) little brains out to Ace Frehley's radical '78 cover of New York Groove! Let's all skate! Enhance this post by clicking HERE!

7 comments:

Aw, the early 80's were certainly the last time I old-school roller skated (Skateland USA!). I think the last time I went was the first time I had somebody to couple's skate with, sigh. That and hay rides really flip the switch on my romantic early teenage nostalgia. Before I became one half of a couples skate we all just used to tear around the track at breakneck speed--from arcade through concession area booths and time-out corner and skate rental counter benches and restrooms and rental locker rooms--it was entirely illegal, and possible, to skate all the way around the rink on the carpet with a snack in each hand. I mean, all the lights were low; it was terribly hard to identify who'd spilled are the crinkle-cut fries and ketchup purely by disco ball. And that's what they get for giving preferential treatment to people who actually got dates.

haha, awesome memories, Mr C! You forgot to mention the minor league make-out sessions under the roller rink parental bleacher waiting area, and of course watching the girls in short shorts changing into their skates was also a good way to narrow down who you'd later be couple skating with, or holding hands with during the mexican hat dance. East Side West Side, here I come!

I spent every Summer Friday night of 1980 at Rock Roll O Rena in Arnold. We may have literally bumped into each other. I never did get any good at it. Remember when they would line the boys and girls up on opposite sides of the rink and you would skate across the floor to pick out someone to skate with. I was always too chicken to go pick out a girl, so I just waited like a goof on the other side. One night, this older girl came over, grabbed me by the hand and said, "Come on!" I was in heaven skating with her across the rink until she unceremoniously threw me into the crowd of girls once we reached the other side and said, "Go find someone."

East Side West Side sounds right, but I hadn't thought of that in literally decades! I wonder if they still do that on Friday nights. I've only been there on school sponsored nights with my kids. The place hasn't changed much, thankfully.

About Me

(aka Steve Banes) Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, DEVIL TALES, and MUMMIES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal collection-- except where noted.)